Middle East

BEIRUT (AP) — The exodus of millions of people from Syria in one of the largest refugee flights in decades is pushing neighboring countries to a breaking point, and thousands of lives are threatened with the onset of a bitter winter….

BAGHDAD – Parliament speaker Osama al-Nujaifi called on Monday for the cabinet to resign and for early elections to be held, as a seven-day wave of violence killed more than 230 people in Iraq. The initiative is aimed at…

Al-Qaeda’s branch in Iraq and the most powerful rebel extremist group in Syria have officially joined ranks against PresidentBashar Assad to forge a potentially formidable militant force in the Middle East. The merger of the Islamic State in Iraq and Jabhat al-Nusra forms a new entity that could be an even stronger opponent in the fight to topple…

CAIRO: One person was killed and more than 80 were wounded in clashes at the Coptic OrthodoxCathedral in central Cairo on Sunday after a funeral service for four Egyptian Christians killed in sectarian violence with Muslims, state media said. Christian-Muslim confrontations have increased in Muslim-majority Egypt since the overthrow of president…

GENEVA — The United Nations will soon have to start cutting off lifesaving aid to people fleeing the war in Syria because the exodus has far outstripped financial support from international donors, one agency at the center of the humanitarian relief effort warned on Friday. Multimedia VideoFeatureWatching Syria’s War AleppoCivilians…

March 13, 2013 — Updated 0435 GMT (1235 HKT) (CNN) — The Syrian civil war has taken a massive toll on the most innocent of victims, the aid agency Save the Children said Wednesday. More than 2 million children have been afflicted by trauma, malnutrition or disease, the group said. In addition, one in three children have been injured in the…

KABUL, Afghanistan — Angry over civilian deaths, PresidentHamid Karzai announced plans Saturday to ban Afghan security forces from requesting international air strikes on residential areas. If he issues the decree as promised, the move would pose a significant new challenge to government troops who have relied heavily on foreign air power to give…

The talks will be between the five members of the UN Security Council, Germany and Iran

The talks will take place in Kazakhstan, the minister says

ESCALATION

January 30, 2013

Israel Conducts Airstrikes on Syria

This really isn’t good. Regional security officials report that Israel conducted an airstrike on Syria. Though the target was not disclosed, the strike reportedly happened near the border with Lebanon. The officials said that Israel was planning to hit a shipment of weapons going to Hezbollah in Lebanon. The shipment allegedly contained powerful SA-17 missiles.

Syrian refugee flood breaches 700,000

By Ben Brumfield and Saad Abedine, CNN

January 29, 2013 —

The number of Syrian refugees registered with the U.N. jumped by about 110,000 in January.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

U.N. official: “It’s an unrelenting flow” of refugees

110,000 more refugees registered with the United Nations in January

Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon have the highest number of Syrians who have fled

There were fewer than 20,000 registered Syrian refugees a year ago

(CNN) — History books are filled with mentions of “great migrations” — vast displacements of people in the face of cataclysmic events.

Syrians fleeing their country’s civil war may go down as yet another one.

The number of refugees registered with the United Nations jumped by 110,000 in January, bringing the total to just shy of 585,000.

If the masses of refugees awaiting registration are included, the number burgeons to 708,477, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said.

Just before she leapt from her roof into the streets of Kabul, Farima thought of the wedding that would never happen and the man she would never marry. Her fiance would be pleased to see her die, she later recalled thinking. It would offer relief to them both. Farima, 17, had resisted her engagement to Zabiullah since it was ordained by her…

One killed in border shooting after Gaza cease-fire

GAZA CITY — The cease-fire between Israel and Hamaswas tested Friday when a group of Gazan youths approached the border in an area Israel considers an off-limits buffer zone. One young man was shot and killed, Palestinian officials said. Nineteen other people were reportedly injured.

The shootings marked the first episode of violence since the cease-fire went into effect. A family member of the man who was killed told Reuters his relative had been shot after trying to put a Hamas flag on the fence and shouting “Jabari is behind you.” Hamas military commander Ahmed Jabari was killed in a surprise attack by Israel last week.

Israeli military officials told reporters that soldiers had fired warning shots in the air to push the Palestinians back from the fence, then fired at their legs after they didn’t move back.

Hamas said it would file a complaint with Egypt about the incident, but that it did not expect a breakdown in the cease-fire over the incident.

The truce struck Wednesday ended eight days of aerial strikes and rocket attacks that killed 166 Palestinians and six Israelis.

Both sides agreed to halt attacks; letting goods and people move from the Gaza Strip is up for discussion later. The vagueness of the deal regarding border restrictions disappointed many Gazans.

Israeli army scores ‘direct hits’ on Syrian target

Reuters | 12 November, 2012 15:54

An Israeli soldier overlooks a tank relocation in Alonei Habashan in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, on November 11, 2012. Israeli troops fired warning shots into Syria in response to mortar fire, the army said, in the first Israeli fire directed at the Syrian military in the Golan Heights area since the 1973 war.Image by: AFP PHOTO/JALAA MAREY

Israel’s army fired tank shells into Syria on Monday and scored ‘direct hits’ in response to a Syrian mortar shell that struck the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, the Israeli military said in a statement.

BEIRUT — Lebanese Red Cross and security officials say a car bomb in east Beirut has killed at least eight people and wounded dozens in the worst blast the city has seen in years.

The motive behind the attack was not immediately clear. But it comes at a time when Lebanon has seen a rise in tension and eruptions of clashes stemming from the civil war in neighboring Syria.

The security officials and officials from the Red Cross said at least 61 people were wounded. The state news agency said 78 were wounded. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to talk to the press.

An Associated Press reporter at the scene saw bloodied victims being loaded in ambulances and heavy damage to residential buildings.

Egypt’s Morsi pardons revolution’s political prisoners

One hundred days into his term as Egyptian president, Mohammed Morsi (pictured), pardoned all those arrested during the revolution and up until June this year, a decree on his Facebook page announced Monday.

French spies were able to set a trap for Gaddafi by obtaining the leader’s phone number from the Syrian government, enabling them to pinpoint his location when Gaddafi made a call. This would explain how revolutionary forces were able to find the former leader, who was hiding in a drainpipe in the Libyan town of Sirte.

Ex Libyan Spy Chief Says French, Syrian Agents Behind Gaddafi’s Death

MEDIAPART (France), CORRIERE DELLA SERA (Italy) DREAM TV (Egypt)

PARIS – The former intelligence chief for Libya’s National Transitional Council (NTC) has alleged that a French secret agent working with the complicity of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad killed the Libyan leader, Colonel Gaddafi.

NTC spy chief Rami el-Obeidi told Paris-based news website Mediapart on Tuesday that “French agents directly executed Gaddafi” on October 20 2011, in an affair that implicates both former French President Nicolas Sarkozy and the now embattled Syrian leader Assad.

In October 2011, the press reported that the Libyan dictator was beaten and killed by rebel forces after being found hiding in a drainpipe. However, longstanding rumors that foreign agents orchestrated the killing has gained credence in recent days after an interview last week on Egypt’s Dream TV with Mahmoud Jibril, who’d served as interim Libyan Prime Minister following Gaddafi’s death.

“It was a foreign agent who infiltrated the revolutionary forces and killed Gaddafi,” Jibril told the Cairo-based TV station.

Italian daily Il Corriere della Sera followed that up with an accusation by Western diplomatic sources in Tripoli that said it was “almost certainly French” secret service agents involved in Gaddafi’s death. At the time, Gaddafi was threatening to reveal details that he helped finance Nicolas Sarkozy’s 2007 electoral campaign.

He suggests that French spies were able to set a trap for Gaddafi by obtaining the leader’s phone number from the Syrian government, enabling them to pinpoint his location when Gaddafi made a call. This would explain how revolutionary forces were able to find the former leader, who was hiding in a drainpipe in the Libyan town of Sirte.

El-Obedi also suggests that Bashar al-Assad, attempting to divert attention away from the conflict in Syria, gave French forces information of Gaddafi’s whereabouts in exchange for France easing pressure on Damascus.

British and Turkish agencies were also supposedly informed, although it was “an exclusively French operation.”

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem told the UN on Monday that the United States, France and several Arab states support “terrorism” by backing anti-regime rebels with arms and aid in “blatant interference in the domestic affairs of Syria”.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem told the UN on Monday that the United States, France and several Arab states support “terrorism” by backing anti-regime rebels with arms and aid in “blatant interference in the domestic affairs of Syria”.

In this Thursday, July 5, 2012 file image released by the Egyptian President, Egyptian Field Marshal Gen. Hussein Tantawi, left, new President Mohammed Morsi, center, and Armed Forces Chief of Staff Sami Anan, right, attend a medal ceremony, at a military base east of Cairo, Egypt.

Syrian rebels say fight for Aleppo has begun

AP | Jul 22, 2012 |

An image released by the Syrian opposition Shaam News Network on Saturday, allegedly shows destruction on the outskirts of Damascus

BEIRUT — Syrian rebels have launched an offensive to “liberate” the country’s largest city of Aleppo, an opposition commander said Sunday, while in Damascus government troops backed by helicopter gunships wrested back control of rebel-held neighbourhoods.

The fighting showed that even as President Bashar Assad’s forces appeared close to regaining control of Damascus after days of intense street battles, the rebels could still mount a new operation in Aleppo, Syria’s commercial hub and bedrock of support for the regime.

With Syria’s civil war moving from the countryside and smaller cities into the country’s two main urban centres, an activist group said the death toll had risen to more than 19,000 since the uprising began in March 2011.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also said July is shaping up to be the deadliest month in the conflict so far, with 2,752 people killed in the first three weeks.

The opposition has also taken control of four border crossings with Iraq and Turkey, most recently the Bab Al Salamah post on the Turkish frontier.

Israel has launched more air strikes on the Gaza Strip overnight, after killing two people in earlier raids, according to Palestinian health ministry sources. The latest strikes targetted two camps of the armed wing of Hamas, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, in central and northern Gaza; and a former Hamas security post in Gaza City.

Thousands of protesters have filled Cairo‘s Tahrir Square overnight as Egypt‘s rival presidential candidates accused each of trying to steal an election whose result is still not known five days after polling ended. Another two days of uncertainty and name calling seem likely over the weekend which begins on Friday, though there was no immediate results…Yet Egypt’s ruling military warned it would “deal firmly” with any attempt to harm the public interest, and blamed political divisions on the release of unofficial presidential poll results by candidates

PARIS – A suicide bomber dressed in a burqa blew himself up near a French patrol in Afghanistan on Saturday, killing four soldiers and wounding five, one of the deadliest attacks on the French contingent in months, as the Taliban step up a spring offensive. The French president’s office on Saturday confirmed that four French soldiers were killed…

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – A U.S. drone strike in northwest Pakistan has killed al-Qaida’s second-in-command, officials from both countries confirmed Tuesday, the most significant victory so far in the controversial bombing campaign and the biggest setback to the terror network since the death of Osama bin Laden. Abu Yahya al-Libi…

A US drone strike on Monday in Pakistan targeted al-Qaeda’s second-in-command Abu Yahya al-Libi, US officials say. They say it is still unclear whether he was among those killed in the strike on a suspected militant compound in North Waziristan, near the Afghan border. Two missiles by the unmanned aircraft killed 15 people, Pakistani officials…

On the surface, the first round of the Egyptian presidential election seemed to show that the Muslim Brotherhood and the remnants of the Mubarak regime are locked in mortal combat for the political soul of Egypt — as Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Morsi faces pro-military candidate Ahmed Shafik in a second round of voting in June.

Egyptians are beginning to get used to democracy. Since the fall of Hosni Mubarak, they have had a constitutional referendum, four rounds of voting in the parliamentary elections, and now the first round of the first free presidential election in the country’s history. That may explain the relatively modest turnout in the presidential vote -…

Yemen violence worsens as suicide bomber kills 90

SANAA | Mon May 21, 2012

(Reuters) – A suicide bomber with explosives strapped under his uniform killed more than 90 people at a military parade rehearsal in the Yemeni capital Sanaa on Monday, an attack which will alarm Washington as its involvement in the front-line state deepens.

The bombing also wounded about 200 people, officials said, making it the bloodiest single incident in the city in recent years.

Yemen’s defense minister and chief of staff were both present at the rehearsal for Tuesday’s National Day parade but neither was hurt. A police source said he could not rule out the bombing was an attempt to assassinate them.

Weakened by an uprising that eventually toppled former leader Ali Abdullah Saleh, Yemen’s government has lost control over whole swathes of the country, allowing militants to overrun several towns in the southern province of Abyan.

An anti-government protester runs holding a teargas canister fired by riot police during clashes after a procession to visit the grave of Ismael Abdulsamad in the village of Salmabad south of Manama, Bahrain, April 16, 2012. Abdulsamad died two weeks ago from a single gunshot wound to the thigh fired from a moving car, Ministry of Interior statement said.

Policemen sit in the back of a police pick-up outside Sanaa International Airport, after the airport was reopened, April 8.

Among Yemenis, there is some optimism that President Hadi will manage to more effectively deal with AQAP than his predecessor, who many analysts say lacked a clear plan to combat the group.

“Yemen doesn’t have a strategy to work against Al Qaeda because of the weakness of the state, which has existed for a long time, since well before the uprising,” says Saeed Ali Al-Jemhi, author of Al-Qaeda in Yemen. “When there is no serious and clear strategy to deal with Al Qaeda, the end point is that Al Qaeda will not be stopped.”

Moments after being sworn in as president in February, Hadi pledged to combat terrorism, saying it was Yemenis’ “patriotic and religious duty” to do so. A former general, Hadi also has the endorsement of the US and other Western nations who will now be watching for those strong statements to turn into action.

Israel asked the US for high-tech weaponry suitable for use against Iran during this week’s visit from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Washington, an anonymous Israeli official said Thursday. The White House denies the reports.

Hajjah, Yemen. Tahani (in pink), who married her husband Majed when she was 6 and he was 25, poses for this portrait with former classmate Ghada, also a child bride, outside their mountain home in Hajjah. Nearly half of all women in Yemen were married as children. Child marriage is outlawed in many countries and international agreements forbid the practice yet this tradition still spans continents, language, religion and caste.

The first Egyptian parliament elected since President Hosni Mubarak resigned last February after a popular uprising is holding its inaugural session. Islamists dominated the elections held for the People’s Assembly over the past three months, winning 73% of the seats.

Across Egypt, many women are taking part in the long parliamentary elections, the first in the country after the Arab spring. Women’s votes have proven to be a powerful weapon in the fierce electoral battle between Islamist parties and Liberal ones, helping one side win over the other in many cases. Only four of 366 women candidates made their way to the parliament in the first stage of the elections.

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